


Collared

by ashes0909, FestiveFerret



Series: Held [22]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Dom/sub, Feelings, Kink Negotiation, M/M, POV Alternating, Subspace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-03 22:33:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10976724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashes0909/pseuds/ashes0909, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FestiveFerret/pseuds/FestiveFerret
Summary: "It was like going underwater in a dream. Steve didn’t have to hold his breath - he didn’t have to breathe at all. He just slipped below the surface."





	1. Chapter 1

Tony ran his tongue up the inside of Steve’s thigh, making him shiver. Steve leaned back on the cool sheets, closing his eyes and focusing on the mouth and hands that explored him. Another lazy afternoon in the penthouse had inevitably led to discarded clothes.

“Tony…” he murmured, and Tony chuckled.

Then the alarm went off.

“Shit!” They both leapt out of bed, throwing on whatever they could find. Tony stopped Steve halfway out the door and pressed him against the wall, slipping a filthy tongue into his mouth. “Just when things were getting interesting.”

Steve laughed. “Things are always interesting with you, Tony.”

The team hit the ground running, splitting into pairs - Steve with Nat - to take on the swarm of Doombots that were rushing downtown Manhattan.

After several minutes of Doombot containment, Steve heard Tony’s fierce voice over his comm. He thought they were muted, but Tony must have switched his to a private channel with Steve by mistake. It was clear that his words were only meant for the ears of the SHIELD agent he was currently growling at.

“I don’t care what your CO ‘might say,’ you’re going to listen to me because I am Iron Man and I say so. I need you to move those barriers back. Now.” There was a tense pause. _“Right now.”_

It was like he was whispering directly into Steve’s ear. He flashed back to Tony above, around and inside him. Holding him down, taking all his power away until he could float and be whatever Tony wanted.

He wanted that so badly.

It was like going underwater in a dream. Steve didn’t have to hold his breath - he didn’t have to breathe at all. He just slipped below the surface.

And then a metal fist connected with his face.

He hadn’t seen the Doombot coming and now he was crumpled against a brick wall while mortar dust settled around him. He looked up to see the Doombot advancing. Panic surged up and twisted with the soft, floaty feeling he still hadn’t shaken. Then a pair of leather-clad legs appeared around its neck and Black Widow sent 2000 volts straight through its wiring with her bites. It collapsed on the ground and she landed deftly beside it.

Steve couldn’t stand, he felt fuzzy and confused. Where was Tony? Nat’s face appeared in his line of vision, confused. “Hey, Cap, you alright?”

He blinked at her. “Where’s Tony?” His voice sounded weird even to him.

She observed him clinically for a moment. “Steve were you with Tony when we got the call to assemble?” She ran a gentle hand along his cheek and he leaned into it.

“Yeah.”

She was on her comm in an instant. “Iron Man, come here now. Cap’s hurt.”

“I’m fine,” he tried to assure her, but she’d turned away. Only seconds later, Tony hit the ground hard, sending up a spray of dirt as he slid to a halt on the sidewalk. His faceplate flipped back and he rushed forward to Steve. He looked so worried. Steve smiled, Tony was so beautiful.

“What’s wrong?” Tony snapped out, running his hands over Steve in panic, but Natasha reached out and stilled them.

“Turn off your comm,” she hissed at him and he reared back.

“Why, what are you going to do to me?”

“Well, I assume you don’t want all of SHIELD knowing the sordid details of your sex life.” Tony reached up and switched off his comm. “You were together when the call came in, right? A nod will do! I don’t need to know any more than that please,” she added hurriedly. Tony nodded and she sighed. “Tony, c’mon, you can’t send him out in the field like this.”

“I didn’t!” Tony protested. “He was fine when we left. We’d barely, um, started.” Nat rolled her eyes with exasperated affection and Tony turned back to Steve. “Steve, what happened?”

“I don’t know.” Steve tried to clear his head enough to describe it. “You were talking to that agent, I heard you over the comm, and then I got hit.”

Nat and Tony stared at him and he stared back. Nat turned to Tony. “What were you saying?”

Tony blushed. “I was, uh, I was reaming out that idiot with the stupid hair for moving the barriers too close on the west side.”

“Shit, Stark. Did you put him into subspace by yelling at someone else?” Natasha sounded equal parts incredulous and impressed.

Tony shuffled uncomfortably, then ran his hand through Steve’s hair. God, it felt good to have him here. “He’s really easy.” Steve frowned, confused, and Tony shot him a smile. “Really good, you’re really good for me, Steve. I’m going to get you home.”

“Ok.” He went up easily into Tony’s arms, wishing he was feeling his bare skin instead of the smooth metal of the armour. Nat whispered something to Tony that Steve didn’t hear and then they were off, rushing through the sky.

The cool air whipping around his face seemed to clear the last of the cobwebs from Steve’s mind and he was feeling much more himself by the time they hit the landing pad at the penthouse. He thought back over what had happened and blushed hot when he realized just how much Nat must have figured out about their relationship.

Tony fussed over him, peeling him out of his uniform and bustling him into bed. “I'm fine now, really. I just got a bit dazed,” Steve insisted. He wasn’t actually completely sure what had happened, but his quick healing had already set him right again.

Tony looked at him, pained. “Humour me, okay?

Steve rolled his eyes, but climbed into bed and spread out on the sheets. He opened his arms invitingly, but Tony shook his head.

“I need a minute. I'll be right back. You need anything?”

_“I'm fine.”_

Steve had almost drifted off by the time Tony came back in, with a bottle of water he handed to Steve. He looked worried, but when Steve frowned, Tony shot him a reassuring smile. Instead of joining him in bed, Tony sat on the floor, his back against the mattress. Steve let his hand hang down and Tony took it and kissed it. “Steve, I made a mistake.”


	2. Chapter 2

_Mistake._

_Bang_ ; and with every clang of his mallet against metal, Tony remembered. _“I want other things too,”_ he had whispered what seemed like forever ago. “ _I want to do so much with you. Kiss you and touch you, whenever and wherever I want.”_  

The mallet struck against the anvil, ringing pain up his arm. He could have explained more then, words that would’ve separated their...play from everything else.

 _Bang._ But then (and now, he reminded himself) Tony had loved their time together too much to think straight. He wanted Steve all the time, in any way Steve chose to be. So he had kept falling into the pleasures of Steve, of him and Steve together, without seeing.

_“Steve, if you don’t tell me what went wrong, I can’t protect you from it happening again.”_

_Protect_. He dropped the mallet, let the clash of metal on metal fill his workshop.

 _“Hey now. It’s okay to ask for things you want, you know.”_ But what if Steve didn't know how to ask? Tony knew how fast he went down, saw the haze in his eyes and the slack in his smile. The warmth he radiated that burned the cold out of Tony’s darkest corners. Steve was bright and beautiful. Steve was his.

He looked down on the anvil, where a string of metal cooled next to his mallet.

_“Steve, I made a mistake.”_

_Fingers gripped into Tony’s hair in reply, and Steve brought his warmth with him as he slid from their bed onto the floor next to Tony. He was soft with sleep, nuzzling into the crux of Tony’s neck and he wondered, not for the first time, what he had done to deserve someone as wonderful as Steve._

_His fist clenched underneath Steve’s fingers, and their eyes only met because Steve reached over and turned his chin. “So let’s fix it.”_

_Tony turned into the curve of Steve’s chest to take a steadying breath, before pulling back to meet intent, blue eyes. “Yes, Steve.” He could hear his words shudder with a each breath. “Yes. We’ll fix it. God. You’re perfect.”_

_Steve’s smile crooked at the word. “So you keep saying,” he whispered before closing the space between them with a kiss._

The vibranium, the last remains that Stark Industries hid away, turned into something beautiful. The cords of leather, red and gold, intertwined around a chain so delicate, so strong.

It reminded him of Steve.

_“You fall so beautifully.”  He broke away from the kiss to see Steve nodding in agreement._

_“When I’m with you it’s so easy to let go. One word and I’m-- I don’t--” Steve breathed. “I don’t want to lose that.”_

_“You won’t. But what happened today.” Protect. Protect. “It can’t happen again.”_

_“I know.” Steve had wrapped them in the blanket from their bed and now he picked at the threading. “I need something,” he began. “Something that will let me know- When I’m with you it's so easy to float under your control, to give in, because I know. I know you have me.” He caught Tony’s gaze and in his eyes he could see the desire there, his memories alone were all he needed to start falling under again. “I need something,” he continued with a swallow, the movement causing the cords of his neck to shift. “I need something to ground me.” Tony nodded, finger reaching for Steve, for the pulse that danced at the base of his neck._

_“I know,” Tony reached around, gripping the back of Steve’s neck, connecting their gaze. “I know what you need.”_

Tony found Steve curled up, back to him, in their bed. The wooden box felt heavy in his hands as Tony kneed onto the mattress, dipping it with his weight. He caught sight of the well-worn paperback in Steve’s hands. “You’re awake?” he asked, and Steve unfurled, setting aside his book and sitting up.Tony could easily read the expectation on his face.

“Hard to sleep when you ran out of here to find a cure for my, what did you call it?  Narcoleptic-subspace.” He smiled and Tony met it with a smile of his own and then Steve’s eyes fell to the box in his hands.

Tony tried not to grip too hard. There were things he needed to say, important things, that would allow Steve to understand what he was doing here, how much this meant to him. “I first considered the possibility of this, of us, when you couldn’t keep your eye off the Iron Man suitcase.” One line in and Steve was already blushing. A beautiful sight that was enough to distract, usually would, but today he pushed through the words. “It was connected to my wrist by a metal chain and you, well... you looked at it with such envy it stopped me in my tracks.”

With a deep breath, he handed over the box and watched as Steve traced his hands over the wood before returning his focus to Tony. “What is it?”

“Open it.”

Steve obeyed, lifting the lid of the box until he could see the collar inside.

Tony watched his eyes widen, lips part with a mix of surprise and awe. And when he looked up at Tony, he was flushed and eager, and Tony knew he had made the right choice.

“You’re mine,” he spoke low into the space between them. “And I’m yours.” Steve bit his lip and nodded, eyes torn between Tony and the collar. “Hand it to me.”

Steve’s fingers fumbled over it, pulling it from the wood. He held it out and Tony had to tug a little to get it out of Steve’s grip. “Do you know what this is?”

Another blush and Steve nodded, then pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Maybe?”

Tony couldn’t help himself, he tilted his head down for a quick, heated kiss before forcing himself to pull away and explain. “This is a collar.” He undid the buckle, holding the leather and metal out for Steve to see. “I made it for you to help ground you, so I can keep you safe, which is my responsibility if you're going to trust me with this. When the collar is on that means that you can float, drift. I can protect you; and when it is off, you remain in control. Do you want that?”

Steve tilted his head, bearing his neck to Tony, beautiful in his submission. _Protect_. “Yes. Tony, yes.”

The words hit him like a lightning bolt, landing in the back of his chest behind the arc reactor. The collar in his hands, it hardly seemed like enough now but it was everything he had. He wrapped it around Steve’s neck, fitting it loose but secure. Held. Steve was on his way there, eyes glossing over and grin slack with pleasure.

“Mine.” Tony whispered. And Steve beamed, tumbling forward and connecting them with a kiss.


End file.
